Language, Learning, and Disability in the Education of Young Bilingual Children

Dina C. Castro is Professor and Velma E. Schmidt Endowed Chair in Early Childhood Education, University of North Texas. Her scholarship focuses on equity in the early care and education of bilingual children in immigrant, transnational, and indigenous communities. She examines how bilingual development and bilinguals’ sociocultural contexts are addressed in early education research, policies, and practices, including accountability systems, and teacher preparation.Alfredo J. Artiles is Lee L. Jacks Professor of Education at Stanford University and Director of the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education. His interdisciplinary scholarship examines the dual nature of disability as an object of protection and a tool of stratification. He aims to understand how responses to disability intersections with race, language, gender, and social class advance or hinder educational opportunities for disparate groups of students.

• ContributorsChapter 1. Dina C. Castro and Alfredo J. Artiles: At the Intersection of Language, Learning, and Disability in the Education of Young Bilingual ChildrenChapter 2. Dina C. Castro, Cristina Gillanders, Nydia Prishker, and Rodolfo Rodriguez: A Sociocultural, Integrative, and Interdisciplinary Perspective on the Development and Education of Young Bilingual Children with DisabilitiesChapter 3.  Carol Scheffner Hammer and Maria Cristina Limlingan: How Bilingualism Affects Children’s Language DevelopmentChapter 4. Lillian Durán: Dual Language Learners in Early Intervention Programs: Issues of Eligibility, Access, and Service ProvisionChapter 5. Sarah L. Alvarado, Sarah M. Salinas, and Alfredo J. Artiles: The Social Organization of Learning for Dual Language Learners in Inclusive ClassroomsChapter 6. Maria Adelaida Restrepo and Anny P. Castilla-Earls: Language Learning and Language Disability: Equity Issues in the Assessment of Young Bilingual LearnersChapter 7. Cristina Gillanders and Sylvia Y. Sánchez: Learning from Sociocultural Contexts: Partnering with Families of Young Bilingual Children with DisabilitiesChapter 8. Norma A. López-Reyna, Cindy L. Collado, Mary Bay, and Wu-Ying Hsieh: Preparing Teachers of Young Bilingual Children with DisabilitiesChapter 9. Marlene Zepeda and Michael J. Orosco: Language, Learning, and Disability in an Era of AccountabilityChapter 10.  Alba A. Ortiz: Young Bilingual Children with Disabilities: Challenges and Opportunities for Future Education Policies and ResearchIndex

This critically important volume is highly overdue! Castro and Artiles have produced a rich body of work on the intersection of special education, bilingual education, and early childhood education. Theoretically and programmatically integrative, this text is essential reading for designing equitable educational approaches that consider emergent bilinguals’ unique assets and skills. Readers will appreciate learning about the developmental characteristics of an increasingly diverse population in early intervention and special education as they gain cultural and linguistic efficacy.